Practice Success Podcast

Elizabeth Manso on Embracing Technology, Meaningful Relationships, and Remote Work

• Canopy • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Elizabeth Manso, President and Founder of Brigade shares how her firm bravely embraced technological transformation, relationship-building and client engagement. She discusses the strategies that allowed her team to successfully implement remote work practices, all while maintaining a robust team dynamic. 

KC Brothers:

Welcome back to the Practice Success Podcast powered by Canopy. In this episode, we learn from Elizabeth Manso, president and founder of Brigade. She shares how her firm bravely embraced technological transformation and the importance of prioritizing relationship building and client engagement along the way. Discover the strategies that allowed her team to successfully implement remote work practices, all while maintaining a robust team dynamic. This episode contains a trove of insights for furs navigating the digital landscape. So tune in for an enlightening discussion with Elizabeth. Welcome to an episode of Canopy Practice Success. I am KC Brothers with Canopy, and I am accompanied today by Elizabeth Manso. Elizabeth, would you like to give yourself an introduction?

Elizabeth Manso:

Sure. Uh, my name is Elizabeth Manso. Uh, I am a CPA, and I own my own 100 percent CAS firm. In Miami, um, we're a team of 13 and we help our small business clients every day with their bookkeeping and accounting and some, a touch of advisory.

KC Brothers:

Nice. Um, so tell me more about, um, you said a touch of advisory, mentioned some bookkeeping. Tell us a little bit about the evolution of your firm through the services that you've provided.

Elizabeth Manso:

Sure. Um, first of all, uh, our firm is 15 years old. Um, So, I've, I've been in this sexy cas space for a very long time, ever, ever since it wasn't sexy. What was it before it was sexy? Just... It was boring. It was clunky. It was inefficient. Okay.

KC Brothers:

Um. I was gonna say scary.

Elizabeth Manso:

Very manual. It was very scary. Okay. Very, very scary. So, now it's, it's, it's, it's beautiful. And it's well oiled. Um. Yes, and I was very frustrated for many years when we first started the firm, um, and it's just now a lot easier because of technology.

KC Brothers:

What about technology either helped you identify your move, transition, refocus, whatever you want to call it there, or, or made it easier of just tr Becoming more CAS central,

Elizabeth Manso:

right? Exactly. So, um, the main thing that we, we, the main hurdle that we had to overcome, um, was the actual tech stack that we used. Um, we were using a variety, uh, whether it's QuickBooks desktop, whether it was, you know, some online, whether it's zero, whether it's, we had a whole myriad of, um, technology accounting platforms that we utilized. So we had to get really. We had to make a decision, um, and we had to, you know, create the tech stack and, you know, what exactly are we going to use. So we, we got that all ironed out and now when clients come, um, of course they have a very broken system. So it's almost like, don't worry, you know, we'll get you from this system to this system. Talking about your clients? Yes, talking about the clients. Um, so we've... Actually, uh, we know exactly and it's kind of like a plug and play system for, for them. Um, with old merit again of, you know, accounts payable, accounts receivable, you know, the accounting platform is all online. It's all on the cloud. It's all integrated with each other. So that way it's much easier. Granted, when clients come, you know. Again, they come from a very broken bookkeeping system, and we basically tell them what it's going to be.

KC Brothers:

So, are you telling them to switch over their tech?

Elizabeth Manso:

Oh, 100%. Okay. 100%. Um, and, and the way I tell them, it's like, look, you're coming to me for a solution. I've got the solution. And this is our solution. Yeah. And I'll tell you, they might hesitate. For a second. That's not long. That's not long. And then they're I'm like, and then of course I say are you open to it? And they're at the point where they're like, yes, I have no alternative. Yes, because what I'm doing right now is not working So I said no problem. This is what's gonna work and this is how we work and they're like, that's fine Like the pushback is very minimal for me Again, I the thing is over the last 15 years and I tell them I'm like over the last 15 years We've gone through trials of every, almost every application for small businesses. Our clients, uh, are the revenue range or anywhere from a million to 15 million. So we do service the smaller and, you know, the smaller business. So we've tested out a lot of applications and we know what works for them. And we tell them, it's like, look, this is what works now. If down the line, we find something that's better for you, we will use it. And we'll add it to our tech stack and replace something, because that's one main thing is that we don't want to have a million applications. We want to make sure everything makes sense for our clients and it's centralized and we actually minimize the amount of applications they love it. I mean, I've had, I've had client, I mean, I've trans we've transformed our clients, um, accounting, like. Just I've seen it night and day like many many many times over and that's why I am so confident I tell them I'm like, look I've done this thousands of times. I will never lead you astray the wrong way I'll always lead you on the right path. That's right for you if something happens and You know something doesn't work. It's okay. I'll tell you look like this is not working. And so we'll we'll try something else so it's almost like we're not like We're, we're, we have our standard tech stack, but if there's, I do leave some wiggle room in there just in case, um, there, you know, our client isn't happy or, or we, we find something better. We do have wiggle room.

KC Brothers:

Well, and what has this done for you and your firm saying like, Hey, this is the tech stack we're going with. We're not going to, maybe I've heard of, you know, from saying we only take QBO clients, we're not taking Xero clients. Yes. Yes. You know, what does that do for the people working in the firm?

Elizabeth Manso:

Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, they've become experts. They've become, you know, experts in certain platforms. They've seen it all. They're able to troubleshoot it. We've, we've developed relationships with our vendor partner, with our app partners. And so, um, they, if there is a problem, the first thing we do is reach out to our, to our partners, our app partners. Or relationships. We have contacts, relationships. And if there's An anomaly will reach out to our, to our partner and, um, they'll solve it for us. It's funny because over the last 15 years, I finally feel like... Uh, we have a voice. And even though we're not the biggest CAS shop out there, we've developed great relationships with our partners and so we get things done for our clients and they, and our app partners actually listen to us and make changes because they know if they don't and we complain, we complain, uh. We, we end up, you know, trying to give them a lot of feedback and they don't do anything, we will leave. Um, so they know that. And I guess we're not big, but you know, I guess we have an impact.

KC Brothers:

Well, I heard this recently with, um, how big AI chat GBT has gotten recently, um, went to a seminar where this individual talked about. Um, these different economies, and I hope I can get this right. So you talked about, you know, with the Industrial Revolution before that, like, economy is all based on, like, your differentiator was how strong you are physically, what you can physically do with your body. Then, the Industrial Revolution came and it became more, what, what could you do with your brain? How knowledgeable were you? And he's like, and now, he's like, I think we're seeing the beginning of a new economy and that being the relationship economy. And I just loved that because not only is this so huge. Um, in regards to what you were just saying with partners and softwares that you're working with, but also in the firm and then also with your clients.

Elizabeth Manso:

So I do want to add a little color to that. So. When I was 16 years old, I, I come from a customer service background. I worked retail. I worked at a bank as a teller. So my first, um, experience with customers were, was in the customer service realm. So I'm going to, so when I became an accountant, I realized a lot of my. Like peers in the accounting firm that I worked at before having my company, they were scared of picking up the phone. They just wanted to send an email and I was the one that's picking up the phone and say, Hey, look, you know, this is our situation. This is what we need to do. You know, can you help me help you? And they're like, Oh, absolutely. And they would help. So to me, it was never, so I've integrated customer service. Since the beginning of my company 15 years ago, and that's how I've also trained my team. I'm like Gone are the days where I'm I asked my team members. Hey, what's the status of this? Why aren't the financials done gone are the days is oh, I'm waiting on the client to respond because they know for me That's unacceptable. Why haven't you called the client? You know, everyone's very used to like, for a very long time now, to have that relationship with the client. And I said, look, the only different, I mean, we do great work, anybody can do great work. Yeah. But how do you become sticky? How do you, well, you, you reach out to the client. And the reason why we are so tech heavy is so we can have more face to face with the client.

KC Brothers:

You will live and die on your ability to create a relationship. Um, and the AI, and sorry, bringing this back to what, like, brought that conversation about, AI isn't going to displace accountants, but what will is the ability to nourish and cater to humans. And to still, you know, be able to see what it is, like you were saying, guide them down the path that is right for the business. We have done this. We've vetted all of these softwares. We know what, how we can deliver the most extraordinary service to you. And this is how we're going to provide it to you. Is this how you would like to engage with us? Um, I'd like to also hear about how you've fostered that sense of relationship, uh, internally within your firm. What have you done there?

Elizabeth Manso:

Well, at the end of the day, I tell my team, look, we're all human. Yeah. Um, again, I'm going to go back to like the customer service part of what we do. So I always tell them like, we've got to stay on top of our clients. We've got to, you know, make sure to call them, text them, email them, have face to face. Um, I just. You know, it's just a matter of, I don't want to say this, but like drilling it into them. Oh yeah, you need to build the muscle memory. Yeah, exactly. And again, we are a team of bookkeepers, accountants, I'm a CPA, so it's not really ingrained in us. So it's just kind of like, you know, Showing them the way, showing them, you know, what needs to be done. We role play. We role play quite a bit. Um, I say, look, instead of, it's not you doing the talking, it's you asking the questions. So that's all it is. And doing the listening. Yeah. All you have to do is listen. Because they're like, oh, but what if I don't know what to say? I'm like, you ask a question. I said, okay, let's say, ask our, ask the person you're talking to, our client, like, what are your goals for 2023? And guess what? They're going to talk non stop. Forget about, so we have monthly meetings with our clients. I said, the financials? Yes, you might have them on the agenda. You may not get to the financials. It doesn't matter. You can send them later. Let, you know, ask them questions. Ask them about their goals. Ask them how we can help them achieve their goals. And, and, and see what they say. Um, and nine times out of ten, they're going to, you know, Give you some little specks of ways that we can help and that would be an advisory service And then that's where I'm saying we sprinkle in advisory because it depends on what our clients want Obviously we can tell them look we can do cash flow management. We can do forecasting. We can do budgeting You know, we can help you, you know find areas where you can save money like we can do all that. Um, And it's a matter of like, I want to make sure that they will find value in it. So I want to hear what their needs are first.

KC Brothers:

Um, so do you have, um, an onboarding process in that regard of like how you take in a new client and, and set up that? I mean, are they used to that? Are new clients used to interacting with an accountant the way that you're wanting to interact with them?

Elizabeth Manso:

So I'm going to go back to our onboarding specialist. We do. So we found out long ago, again. So I've had my company for 15 years. After the, after year 10, I'm like, okay, I think, I think I got the hang of this. So it took me a little while to get the hang of it. So the last five years has been really fun. And I've realized that the biggest bottleneck that we've had is the onboarding process. Whenever we bring in a new client, what happens is we would, it would go directly to like a bookkeeper and accountant, and that would bog, that would bog down their workload and they slow down and they don't meet their deadlines. So that was an issue that we. Uh, address, uh, I want to say two years ago when we created the onboarding specialist role, and that's been a total game changer. And as I bring in new clients, I tell them like, look, you're going to have the first four weeks with our onboarding specialist. And with that, you'll, you know, you'll provide us with access. We'll migrate your, your software to ours, to our preferred online platform. We'll get you hooked up to all the accounts, payable apps. The, uh, you know, accounts receivable apps. We'll get all of that in the first four weeks. And our onboarding specialist is like, she's like, she's a machine. She's amazing. She's wonderful. And she's not an accountant. She's not an accountant. She's not a bookkeeper. You know, she is. She, she used to work as an office manager for one of our, our clients who ended up selling their business. So she needed a job and she reached out to me and we found a role for her and she loves it. She loves it. So, you know, I think that's been a huge game changer and when she, it goes from the onboarding specialist to the accounting team. It's beautiful. And they can pick up that ball and run with it, and there's no, um, there is, there's no hesitation on their behalf. They could just like, again, hit the ground running and get the books done as soon as possible. So, we do, we do, we do explain that to our new client. Yeah.

KC Brothers:

I love that. I love that there's a process there. It's already so expensive to get a new client, like customer acquisition costs are highest with new as opposed to retention. But then, just providing that experience for them is wonderful.

Elizabeth Manso:

And I, I tend to reach out to, you know, our new client. I'm like, how's it going? How's Deanna treating you? And they're like, oh my god, she's so great. I'm like, I know, right? And I always say, look, if you have any problems, you have my cell phone. And all of our clients have my cell phone number. My phone never rings. It's amazing. Um, I'd love to hear from them, but I like it also when they're well taken care of by my team. Yeah.

KC Brothers:

So what, what do you feel like you've done to really, um, you've, you've said in the last five years that it's become a well oiled machine. Um, it sounds like your clients know what to do, your employees are happy, you are happy. Is there one or two things that you would say like really made the difference there and tipped you into that point of just feeling well oiled? Or is it just too many little things?

Elizabeth Manso:

Well, I'll tell you, um, in 2018, I created a vision, like a vision board of what I wanted my company to be. Real time accounting, um, you know, there's a process in place. There's, you know, everything has like a checklist. Like, I had like this really incredible vision and I presented it to my team in 2018 and they laughed in my face. They were like, yeah, right, Ellie, like, in what realm do you think this is going to happen? This, you know, and we were working remote, like I had this entire vision. So what ended up happening, March of 2020, when the pandemic hit, and they're like, oh my gosh, Ellie, what are we going to do? I don't know. Ellie was sitting back. You ripped out your... Ellie was sitting back with a grin on her face and said, I know exactly what we're going to do. Remember that plan. And I ripped out that plan and they're like... I'm like, that's what we're going to do. And we did it, and they were just like, oh my gosh, it only took us two months to implement everything that you wanted. And I said, I know. But the resistance went down, the walls came down, and we did what I wanted to do, and that was the game changer.

KC Brothers:

Awesome. And you're fully remote, right?

Elizabeth Manso:

100%.

KC Brothers:

What, um, Advantages, positives, uh, have come from working fully remote.

Elizabeth Manso:

Um, number one, our team is really happy. Productivity has spiked. So we, we track our productivity. Um, and that's spiked. Our team is happy. They, they can work from anywhere in this world. Right now I have someone in Moldova. She's working there for two months. She's visiting her family. She goes every year for two months. And she's happy. Doesn't skip a beat. Doesn't skip a beat. Her, her hours may change a little bit. And, and she's happy. Um, so we also have unlimited PTO. So we have to force people to take vacation. Because, just because it's like we're making everything so easy. We're deadline driven. So they know exactly what needs to be done. I don't care if they do it at midnight. I don't care what time of the day they do it. As long as they hit the deadline. Um, our clients know. Um, and I don't know. It's just, there's, there's. There's so many benefits. Um, the drawback will have to be that, you know, we don't have the personal touch every day. That's why we have to, like, make it a point to have team building every couple of months. Every quarter, um, my directors, we have three directors, including myself, meet with our local Miami based team, um, for mentoring lunches, and we take a good two hours, three hours of lunchtime to get, you know, a temperature on our team. We do have a team, um, out, uh, in Serbia. We have, we have one person out in Serbia. We have a team in the Philippines as well. So, we do take the time to meet with them, uh, on a quarterly basis at least to get their feedback. How are they? How are they liking their job? You know, where do they see themselves at the company, you know, in the next year or so? We really listen to them and we make changes. Yeah. Yeah. We have, we have a, a team member that wants to manage people. So I'm like, we've got to get them to the point that they're managing people.

KC Brothers:

Yeah, I love it. It's not. There's intentionality, you've mentioned it in two areas, I feel like. Intentionality with defining what the firm was going to be, what you were going to work on, and then intentionality with, you know, adapting to a remote hybrid workforce. And, and ensuring to engage your employees, um, they're your most valuable asset.

Elizabeth Manso:

100%. And, um, Todd, and I don't know, so as far as recruiting goes, we also recruit differently.

KC Brothers:

Okay. Yeah. So, um. Well, you're not limited to Florida.

Elizabeth Manso:

Not limited to Florida. Correct. Um, but we have our team find. Find people for us. Yeah, we reward them. We compensate them. Obviously, we do we compensate them well And they are in charge of finding people to work with us So yeah that that's also again They're gonna refer people to the firm number one there that means they're happy because they want you know Someone that they know and trust to join the firm. It'll be a better culture fit Because you kind of, you know, birds of a feather, um, so, you know, we've grown through, and I also, I've, I've contacted clients. Hey, you know, we're looking for another senior accountant. Do you know anybody? We've gotten, we've gotten great employee referrals from clients because they're like, oh, you're growing. Oh, I think I know someone, you know, someone that you can talk to, you know, and, and we've We've also grown that way, so gone are the days that I hire a recruiter, um, gone are the days that I post, you know, the job on Indeed or anything, it's all

KC Brothers:

homegrown. I love that. Well, well done, Elizabeth. Thank you. Thank you again.

Elizabeth Manso:

Having some fun.